Monday, 19 January 2015

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

I thought this would be a book of gruesome fairy tale retellings, but Emily Carroll corrected me (to my unending delight) with this gorgeous book:

1) Emily Carroll writes her own gruesome fairy tales.

2) Emily Carroll writes her own gruesome fairy tales which are so amazing you feel like you've known them your whole life.

These fairy tales touch on our most primal fears: the dark, the uncanny not quite humans who prey on us and may replace our loved ones, the body horror, blood, dark enclosed spaces, pain, monsters, and death - all of them connected to the woods, the mythical place which the hand of civilization left untouched, where wild beasts roam, and nightmares dwell.

I read this on a cold winter night, and while it definitely improved the reading, I can't say I'd advise it to other readers...

Imagine reading this while the wind howls outside, and you're cold down to your bones:

Haha... ha. Yeah... "Sweet, wet voice." Good... ...stuff.

I think the beautiful artwork and the colour choices (not to mention the use of light and dark to create an atmosphere) speak for themselves. But Carroll is also a master when it comes to pacing, and she has that little something only a few possess: the ability to invoke true horror in the readers' hearts.

As Alfred Hitchcock said, "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it." And Emily Carroll certainly knows how to make use of this...